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Kay Adams
Katherine "Kay" Cameron Rose Adams-Corleone was the long-term girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone, the future Godfather of the Corleone family. Biography Kay was born to Thornton Adams, a Baptist pastor from New Hampshire, and his wife Agnes Adams. An excellent stutent, she was admitted to Dartmouth and met Michael in 1945 while studying education there. Though they believed their affair to be a secret, Kay's concerned parents had read some of her mail and discovered the truth. As a non-Italian, she was somewhat of an outsider from the beginning and symbolized Michael's initial desire to live a more Americanized life, in contrast to the Corleone family's criminal enterprises. She attended Connie's wedding with Michael, and most of the guests thought her to be somewhat more free-spirited than they'd come to expect from an unmarried woman. Kay was taken aback when Michael told her how his father helped Johnny Fontane's career by threatening to kill his manager, but Michael assured her "that's my family Kay, not me". Marriage After Michael kills both Sollozzo and McCluskey to avenge the assassination attempt on his father in 1946, he and Kay are separated while he takes refuge in Sicily. On at least one occasion, she asked Tom Hagen to give Michael a letter, but Tom refused out of concern for possible criminal liability. In the meantime, Kay graduated from Dartmouth and took a job as an elementary school teacher in her hometown. During this time, she developed a warm relationship with Michael's mother, Carmela. While Michael was in hiding, he married a local girl, Apollonia, who is accidentally killed by a car bomb intended for Michael. He returns to the United States two years later and traveled to New Hampshire to reunite with Kay. By this time, Michael had been named as his father's heir apparent, and Kay was stunned to find out Michael was now fully immersed in his family's criminal enterprises. However, after Michael promises to make the Corleone family completely legitimate within five years, Kay agrees to marry him in 1951--understanding that there were certain parts of his life that they couldn't share. Due to Michael's marriage to Apollonia taking place entirely in Sicily, Kay is apparently unaware that Michael was a widower when he returned to America. She did, however, notice that he was somewhat rougher in bed when they had sex. Kay eventually gave Michael two children, Anthony and Mary. They were born within two years of each other, leading Michael to joke that Kay is "more Italian than Yankee." Kay replies that Michael is "more Yankee than Italian" because he always brings his work home with him. Michael becomes operating head of the Corleone family in 1954, and succeeds his father as Don after his death a year later. When an hysterical Connie accused Michael of orchestrating a wave of murders — including that of her husband, Carlo Rizzi — Kay asked Michael if his sister is telling the truth. Michael initially refused to tell her, but in response to her repeated pleas, falsely denies that he is responsible. Immediately afterward, Michael received his caporegimes, and Peter Clemenza kissed Michael's hand and greeted him as "Don Corleone." Unknown to them, Kay watched the whole thing. She realized Connie was telling the truth after all, and her husband has become his father's successor in every way. Horrified, she initially fled back to New Hampshire with their children, but Tom Hagen persuaded her to return. Upon her return, Kay converted to Catholicism, going to Mass every day to pray for her husband's soul, just as Carmela had done for Vito. Life in Nevada .]] Kay is still very isolated from the decisions Michael makes as the new Don. However, she is not content to be as docile as Carmela had been. During her third pregnancy, she implores Michael to fulfill his promise of legitimizing the family business. Michael makes a sincere effort to break the family's criminal ties, but his escalating war with rival Hyman Roth keep him trapped in the criminal underworld and in his personal obsession with revenge. The Abortion Kay is increasingly repulsed by Michael's criminal life, particularly the fact that Michael's button men have become Anthony's playmates. She also fears that if the baby turns out to be another son, it will tie them to the Mafia forever. During Michael's trip to Cuba, Kay decides to leave Michael, this time for good. She sets her plan in motion by secretly aborting the baby and passing it off as a miscarriage. A few months later, the Senate's investigation of Michael collapses when Michael intimidates turncoat capo Frank Pentangeli into recanting his testimony against him. After the hearing, Kay tells Michael that she is leaving him and taking the children with her. Michael tries to convince her to stay, but Kay is unwilling to listen and finally reveals the truth to him--her "miscarriage" was really an abortion. Enraged, he hits her across the face and banishes her from the family; the two are soon divorced. Initially, Michael retained custody of the children, but after Fredo Corleone's murder, he relinquished them to Kay. They had a somewhat frosty relationship over the years, which grew even chillier when Anthony told her that Michael had ordered the death of his uncle Fredo. A New Life By 1979, Kay and Michael have not been in contact since 1971, and Kay has remarried to Douglas Michelson, a lawyer. Michael has extracted himself from criminal enterprises and has even sold the casinos, and he has been given an honor comparable to knighthood by the Pope, in recognition of his charitable work. They have an uneasy reunion, in which Kay says she dreads seeing Michael. She also says that as far as she is concerned, Michael is more dangerous as a businessman than he was as a Don. They agree to a truce after Michael reluctantly consents to permit their son, Anthony, to become an opera singer. Kay and Michael begin to reconcile when Kay joins the family in Sicily to watch Anthony's debut. While having lunch together, Michael asks Kay's forgiveness for giving in to his desire for revenge 20 years earlier, and admits he truly intended to live an honest life. Kay admits that she still loves Michael. Shortly afterward, Calo breaks the news that Don Tommasino has been murdered. Kay hears Calo screaming revenge, and muses, "It never ends." Nonetheless, Kay and Michael are about to begin a new life together when their daughter, Mary is killed in an assassination attempt on Michael. This tragedy breaks Michael's spirit, and he withdraws from Kay and from life itself until his lonely death in 1997. Notes and references Behind the scenes *Kay was portrayed in all three films by Diane Keaton. She was a relatively unknown actress at the time of the first film. While she didn't garner an Oscar nomination for her performance, it is nonetheless considered a career-making role for her. *While the scene where Kay fled to New Hampshire was removed from the first film, it appeared in drafts of the sequel script. Adams, Kay